![]() I remember walking into their offices at Two Gateway Center. The POISE Foundation invited me to an interview. That career development course saved my life, and stuck with me when I found myself, much later, in a position to help others.Īfter working up a resume, going through mock interviews, learning when to send a thank-you card, figuring out what to do with my napkin at a business lunch and countless other lessons, I started submitting applications. I told her I needed help finding a job, so she sent me to a career development course. I was lucky to have a case manager who asked me what I needed. Broadhead’s disappearance was one more reason to start fresh. But when I got out of state custody, Broadhead was gone - demolished, like so many public housing communities in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Growing up, we had everything: rec centers, track and field facilities, families that kept an eye on each other. I grew up in Broadhead Manor, a public housing community in Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood. That’s in part because the world you return to may not be the world you left. (Photo by Rich Lord/PublicSource) Fast forward to last monthĪ few weeks ago, on a mid-December evening, I handed certificates to three men, including Terrill Weatherspoon. 19, 2023, at the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church in Swissvale. Terri Minor Spencer at the Colorful Backgrounds EXPO (for Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing) graduation event on Tuesday, Dec. I didn’t even know how to use the new phones. But how do I create a resume - especially with my past? If I get an interview, what do I wear? Perfume, or no? What will the interviewer ask, and how should I answer? Just please help me to get myself together.”īut I had no idea how to get myself together. Now I was in my early 40s, thinking and praying: “I hope I don’t mess up again. Now, with time to think, it hit me: I had spent much of my 20s making mistakes connected to crack cocaine, and much of my 30s locked up. Walking out of the State Correctional Institution Muncy, I felt like I was floating above the sidewalk. ![]() It was a pretty day, and the greenery of Central Pennsylvania rolled by. No one sat next to me on my way home on the Greyhound bus following my release from prison. As she started to hand me her smart phone, I asked: “Can you dial the number? I don’t know how to use that.” Thankfully, she was happy to help. ![]() ![]() “Can I use your phone?” I asked a lady at the Greyhound Bus Station in Muncy. ![]()
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